Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We are thinking about relocating and we'll be checking out the area this summer. Here are a few questions:
1) Where should we go first to get a feel for the area? Let's say you have an out-of-town guest and would like to show them around. Where would you take them? I'm interested in tourist and non-tourist stuff.
2) Are there any nice neighborhoods with shops & restaurants within walking distance? If yes, where? We live in a very suburban neighborhood now and don't like the fact that we have to drive everywhere. We want to do less driving and more walking. We want to live in a more urban setting, not necessarily downtown. Something with some nature around too, maybe a nice park nearby, but in a good school district (we have two pre-schoolers). The home price range would be somewhere between $350,000 & $400,000. Anything with a community pool would be perfect
3) What do you guys like to do to for fun? We love dinning out. We usually go for ethnic food (Mexican, Indian, Thai, Japanese, etc). We enjoy going out for walks & hikes, listening to live music and taking yoga classes. We love being near water and enjoy swimming. We also like to take our kids to playgrounds, museums, aquarium, zoos, etc. We support the local economy and like to shop at the Farmers Market and from CSA programs. We prefer to buy coffee from a local coffee shop than from Starbucks. So what are you favorite local places and what do you recommend doing? We are interested in both family and solo activities.
Have you narrowed down whether or not you want to live closer to Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill? New homes or older homes?
It's kind of hard to find areas that are not suburban, but also not downtown and have nice little areas walkable to quaint shops and restaurants and such. A lot of people seem to be looking for that (and I'd LOVE it too), but there is just isn't a lot of it the way the triangle is spread out.
I can't speak to specific areas in Durham and Chapel Hill (which both have nice walkable areas, but I don't know which soecific neighborhoods there would be accessible to them), but you might like 5 points in Raleigh, somewhere around the Wade Avenue/Cameron Village/NCSU area in Raleigh and possibly someplace around North Hills.
As for what I would do while here, if you have kids I would definitely take visitors to Marbles, Pullen Park, Locopops, The Durham Science Museum, a day trip to the zoo, the Farmer's Market, for a drive/walk around the different college and universities, a tour of downtown Raleigh, a walk down 9th Street, a trip tp the Planetarium, lunch at 42nd Street or Clyde Cooper's Barbeque, a stop at Quail Ridge Bookstore, maybe an outdoor concert at Regency Park if it's warm, catch a show at the new DPAC, a visit to Falls Lake, a walk around Lake Johnson....there is lots of stuff!
No, we haven't narrowed anything down yet and that's the purpose of our trip. We'll be looking everywhere really. And we do prefer newer homes.
Looks like there are a couple of zoos around, are you talking about The Asheboro Zoo or the Triangle Metro Zoo? Thank you for the all of the info. It is great!
Looks like there are a couple of zoos around, are you talking about The Asheboro Zoo or the Triangle Metro Zoo? Thank you for the all of the info. It is great!
I didn't know there was a zoo in the Triangle. I know the Museum of Life & Science in Durham has a small petting zoo with barnyard animals and then some bears and wolfs (not for petting, of course!)...
Wow, you sound very Chapel Hill/Carrboro!
The Franklin Street area downtown is very walkable and filled with families (unless it's nighttime and UNC has just won a game -- then I'd stay away). We like ethnic food too, and there's a Turkish place and a Vietnamese Noodle Soup (Pho) place, among the normal American and Italian places. Almost nothing is a chain -- there's an adorable place called Locopops that has homemade popsicles with crazy flavors like Lavender or Strawberry-Oreo or Pineapple-Cinnamon and stuff for only a few dollars! It's a really nice area, and I'd definitely take a walk around there, maybe after/before dinner. There are Tarheel shops and many bakeries and things too for dessert My family has recently found great Korean food in nearby Durham, and we also have dim sum (Chinese) in Durham every Sunday with some friends. There's a cool German bakery somewhere called Guglhupf, which is pretty amazing. There's also a great and well-known Southern restaurant called Mama Dip's, downtown. She's a Chapel Hill legend. If you're not from the South I suggest you check it out!
Chapel Hill schools are definitely the best in the area, though certain Durham schools are quite good too (the high schools, at least).
Because there are so many professors' families in the area, there is a lot of money spent on educational things, leading to a GOOD public library and nice museums in the Chapel Hill and nearby Durham, etc. I second the suggestion for a trip to the planetarium.
I'd also go to Weavers Street Market in Carrboro (near Chapel Hill, but smaller -- they share the school district, though). There's a grassy space in front of the "market" where families relax and sometimes people play guitar or bring their dogs... It's nice. Carrboro also has a farmers' market every... Sunday, I believe? Maybe it's every other Sunday? I'm not sure. I've been once or twice though and it's nice.
I don't think there are any neighborhoods that are walkable to Franklin Street or downtown Carrboro, but you'll be happy to hear that Chapel Hill Transit has a reliable and FREE bus system that can pretty much take you wherever you need to go, which is nice. Many people in Carrboro ride bikes. The driving isn't really a hassle either -- Chapel Hill's not that big
For nature, definitely head over to Duke Gardens. Sometimes there's some kind of family-oriented performance going on there too, but it's a very pretty place to be whether there's an event or not.
The Asheboro Zoo is definitely the "main" zoo -- I had never even heard of the Triangle Metro one, haha.
There are some great local coffee shops too: Try Cafe Driade, the Open Eye Cafe, or maybe Joe Van Gogh / CupaJoe.
If you're here in the summer, there's an outdoor movie series in a neighborhood called Southern Village (but it's open to everyone). Find the schedule online somewhere, take the kids, a blanket or lawn chairs, and enjoy.
If you want a swim, you could go to Meadowmont (the best pool, huge spirally slide, but it's kind of expensive without a membership) or just the municipal pool (which is actually quite nice). Could also head to Jordan Lake.
I think you may enjoy visiting the ArtsCenter in Carrboro as well. They have many local classes and cool workshops and things.
Have fun!! I think you'll really enjoy the area from your description of what you like to do. Sorry this post is so unorganized! Haha
There are the science and history museums in downtown Raleigh. The history museum has an exhibit on pirates right now (cool for the kids perhaps), while the science museum has an exhibit coming up in May about chocolate (yum!).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
